Exclusive: Tory leader has plans to reinstate group that provided top donors with direct access to senior ministers
Kemi Badenoch is relaunching the Conservative party’s “advisory board” for high-value donors in a different guise, the Guardian has learned.
The Tory leader has drawn up plans to reinstate the exclusive group, which provided top donors with regular direct access to senior ministers, according to two people briefed on the plans.
In 2021, the Conservative party’s advisory board found itself at the centre of a “cash for access” storm after it emerged that its members had regular meetings and calls with Boris Johnson, the prime minister at the time, and Rishi Sunak, the then chancellor.
One donor, Mohamed Amersi, told the media that some members of the board had given the party upwards of £250,000 a year. It was quietly wound up in subsequent years after the controversy.
